Thursday, August 24, 2006

Today, at about 8:05 EST, after two years of postponement and a few alterations in plan, I officially assumed the title of "college student". My application to Christendom that I thought I had cancelled was in fact, when I last called, merely put on file, leaving me with the option of resubmitting it. All I need to do is stack up a certain number of credits this semester and I can hopefully transfer in January.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

By and large, I think neoconservatives play fair by the paleocons more than is true the other way around. As a case in point, here is an article by Pat Buchanan on WorldNetDaily which I found by way of Mark Shea:

Beat the drum for permanent war for global democracy and against Islamo-fascism, and all other sins are forgiven you.

Such is the state of conservatism, 2006.

Aren't we sort of jumping to conclusions here? The main point here (apart from the fact that Kristol's remarks do not quite support Buchanan's interpretation of them) is that it's a trifle unfair to latch upon a single remark, whether fairly represented or not, and hold it as completely typical of an entire movement. Think about it. A certain paleocon (who will remain nameless and who certainly didn't write the article I link to) could go ahead and advocate torture in the war on terrorism, and neocons will not instantly jump up and shout that this is the state of old-style conservatism in 2004 or whenever. (If anything, it was actually the neocons who got branded en masse as torture excusers). I guess Buchanan can afford to play this way since there are very few people anymore who can be associated with him politically. I'm probably judging on poor factual basis, but I rather got the impression that many of those rounded up by David Frum in his controversial article of a couple of years ago have moved to other camps, many becoming libertarians. It would also seem from the outset that Frum falls into this same kind of foul play, but for all he accuses many leading anti-war conservatives, he steers clear of indicting an entire movement on the basis of a quote from one prominent member.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

The "historical artifact" that Mrs. MacReady sternly lilts at Susan not to touch as she is showing the Pevensie children through the house in the movie is nothing other than a bust of Dante Alighieri. This is attested to by IMDB's trivia page, but I already knew it anyway. What I didn't know was what the significance was, though I was sure it had to have one. I figured this was just a reference to one writer in the work of another writer, or perhaps there was a reference to Dante in one of the other books. I recently finished reading The Last Battle for the first time (last night actually), and then it dawned on me only after seeing all the eschatological overtones: What with Narnia one the one hand and The Screwtape Letters on the other hand, C.S. Lewis is the first writer in nearly six hundred years to leave his readers with the feeling that he really has seen Heaven and Hell and come back to tell us about it.Sorryif this sounds like a blinding flash of the obvious, but I really didn't realize it till now.